News culture The debate is settled: we know the ideal length of a film and Scorsese won’t like it
In recent years, films seem to be getting longer and longer, which doesn’t displease Martin Scorsese, who is a fan of (very) feature films and many of his films last longer than three hours. However, a recent study seems to suggest that not everything long is necessarily good…
This study is based on the films of Martin Scorsese
As films seem to get longer and screenings drag on from year to year, some people want to know ideal length of a film. According to the survey by Speaker researchwho asked 2000 Americans in this respect, this duration would extend to 92 minuteseither 1 hour and 32 minutes. Among the films that meet this criterion, we find a number of animated films, even essentially Monsters & Co et Toy Story 2 from Disney et Pixarbut also Beetlejuice from Tim Burtonor in a completely different register, puzzle from Michael et Peter Spierig.
Accordingly 15% of respondentsMovies longer than 120 minutes (2 hours) remain correct while only 2% of participants admitted that he likes films longer than 150 minutes (two and a half hours). Bad news for Martin Scorsesewhich tends to produce films that are (far) longer than 150 minutes, such as Flower Moon Killer et The Irishman Both last almost three and a half hours. But if we rely on the box office of the last few years, The results of this survey seem a little contradictory…
The box office (and James Cameron) disagrees
From the top of his (almost) $3 billion in salesthe first film in the saga Avatar dominates the box office. And yet it takes no less than 162 minutes (2 hours 42 minutes). Close behind, with almost $2.8 billion in saleswe find the famous Avengers: Endgamethat’s what keeps him 180 minutes, or exactly 3 hours. It also follows Avatar: The Way of Water and be 2.3 billionwhich extends over 192 minutesor 3 hours and 12 minutes. The three most profitable films of the last fifteen years are around 3 hours, i.e. twice the so-called ideal duration Speaker research.
But the contradiction doesn’t end there, because the three following films are in the same boat. Titanic from James Cameron enters fourth place and reaches the 194 minutes or 3 hours 14 minutes. Surely, James Cameron also (very much) likes feature films. We have behind him Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens which certainly lasts a little less long with his 138 minutes (2 hours 18 minutes), which still exceeds the 2 hour mark, and finally Avengers: Infinity War what does it achieve? 149 minutesand is just under the limit of two and a half hours set by some participants.
Obviously the sample is from Speaker research is ultimately not very representative because it is in direct contradiction to the greatest cinema successes of recent years! And you, what do you think of this survey? And what do you think is the ideal length of a film?
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